Playing the percentages

Jacket offense utilizes speed, stresses field position

It's selecting an offense that works well without great size, then tweaking it to capitalize on great speed.

Then it's working for field position that puts the percentages in your favor.

It's playing the percentages -- very well, in the case of the 12-1 St. Augustine Yellow Jackets, now three days away from playing for their first state championship.

They've averaged just over 28 points per game, a gracious plenty to go with a defense allowing just under six.

Impressive, given the rebuilding it entailed.

click photo to enlarge

Scores a TD in Bradford game.

By RALPH D. PRIDDY, Staff

The Jackets, lest anyone forget, not only lost last year's lead back, Rutgers freshman Marcus Jones, it lost all but four offensive starters from a Class 5A district championship team.

"We didn't just lose Marcus, we lost Mike White, who may be as good a wingback as we've ever had," noted coach Joey Wiles. "Take Marcus and Mike, there's 2,500 yards gone."

They haven't exactly replaced those yards, either. No SAHS back has more than 700 yards this season.

The fullback spot so impressively handled by Jones in 2000 has been run by committee in 2001.

But they're scoring. And winning.

And it goes back to playing the percentages.

First, it's operating from the wing T, Wiles' preferred offense since coming to St. Augustine in 1996.

"When I was at Melbourne, we were more of an I (formation) team. When I was at Fort Pierce Central, we had some monstrous kids and we were in the I," he said. "When I came here, based on our history of (lack of) size, no question, the wing T has given us a chance to be good."

Given its emphasis on blocking angles and misdirection, the wing T is also known as a friend to relatively slow teams, but St. Augustine has tailored it to capitalize on its speed.

"It's called extended motion," when wingbacks Taurean Johnson and Cedric McBurrows zip down the line in what almost looks like and end-around, Wiles said. "We're looking to threaten the perimeter. Generally when you do that, it opens up the middle, which we haven't been very successful.

"Marcus had a feel for it. Marcus would take the trap play and run it not only where it was designed to go, but he could bend it back. We hurt Palatka with it two years ago."

But two of Jones' successors, Nate Green and Ronnie McKnight, have taken turns battling injuries. McKnight, a sophomore, has reclaimed the position, with 230-pound linebacker Bubba Gardner stepping in for short-yardage situations.

This year's big-play backs have been the wings, McBurrows and Johnson, and quarterback Willie Cooper -- each a proven big-play man.

Cooper, for instance, averaged 12 yards per carry, Johnson 8 yards and McBurrows 6 yards in the Sept. 7 Middleburg game. The Jackets won 48-0 even though they only ran 32 plays.

"We've been able to put long drives together that have taken almost the entire quarter," said Wiles, "but we've also been able to score quickly, even when we haven't been doing much."

Consider McBurrows' 66-yard run for the winning touchdown in last Friday's 24-20 semifinal victory in Milton.

"It did not look good for us offensively," said Wiles, whose club got its first two touchdowns on a fumble recovery and a punt return.

That's the beauty of fast guys in a wing T.

"If you're a power-I football team, the reads (for the defense) are so much easier," Wiles said.

"In the wing T, you can't key the backs.

"It's fun to watch the tapes and see three or four guys chasing someone who doesn't have the ball."

Cooper has complemented his own skills as a running quarterback by passing for more than 600 yards.

"That's pretty good for a wing T," Wiles said. "When you look at Ed White's success and Sandalwood's success in the wing T, they've had very little throwing."

Finally, it has helped the St. Augustine offense that it has generally operated in excellent field position.

"(By) pinning people back with the kicking game and holding them down, we're playing on a short field," Wiles said.